I don’t often make Paleo desserts, mostly because I tend to eat a little too much of it. But when I saw all the amazing recipes Tammy Credicott put into Paleo Indulgences, I just couldn’t resist – I made 2 in the space of a week!
Milk and cookies anyone? I felt like some dessert tonight and so made a variation of the cinnamon cookies that I used to make – they are quite delicious and addictive! The basis of the cookies is almond butter and chia bran.
What is chia flour? It’s a flour made from chia seeds that works well as a replacement to flax meal, almond flour, or coconut flour. It doesn’t taste strongly of anything but sticks ingredients together well. It’s great to bake with!
I picked up this squash from our local store the other day (I don’t actually even know what kind it is – anyone know?). It was really tough to cut open, so I just made a small cut and shoved it into the oven for 2 hours on 350F. It smelled amazing (and was very easy to cut!) and tasted pretty good too – adding a bit of coconut oil or raw honey will make it taste amazing. Perfect for autumn!
I know this might look like a muddy bottle of cheap vodka to you, but it is in actual fact a delicious and highly prized (by me) bottle of my own vanilla extract. Fresh Madagascar vanilla beans with vodka (yes, it’s cheap vodka!). No sugar. No coloring.
It smells delicious, and I’ve made enough to last me quite a long long time! It’s also amazing how much cheaper it is to make your own. I initially balked at having to pay $28 for my vanilla beans (around 50 beans), but they were well worth it. And my vodka was only around $10. So for approximately $30 (because I only use around 30 beans), I can make 1 liter (or 33oz) of completely pure vanilla extract. The brand of pure vanilla extract I used to buy (Simply Organic) is $16 for 8oz on Amazon. So basically, it’s Double The Price to buy rather than make your own vanilla extract!
The method is simple, and this is how it works:
Living in New York, it’s hard to escape the influence of Tom Colicchio. From Riverpark to the entire chain of Craft restaurants, my OpenTable options are often crammed with his restaurants. And so this visit to Craftbar was definitely not my first!
I first came across Craftbar over a year ago when they started serving brunch. I happened to be looking for a nice brunch place that wasn’t ridiculously hard to get into (I rarely remember to make reservations a day ahead of time, much less 3 weeks…), and Craftbar answered my New Yorker Saturday morning needs! However, their dinner reviews on Yelp didn’t fill me with great confidence, which is why it took me over a year and countless brunch visits before I finally clicked to make a dinner reservation. Boy was I glad I did!
I had no idea what a world of difference fresh rosemary made until I started growing my own on my balcony. You can check out the photo of my potted plant at the end of my last article, which was on my mum’s organic garden. It’s so convenient to be able to just go pick some herbs and then throw it into a dish I’m making.
Ok, onto this Paleo baked salmon recipe because it’s super simple!
Here comes another simple recipe that requires Zero Cooking. It’s become a welcome habit when you have little time in the evenings. What I love about this recipe is the great mix of flavors (apples, curry, parsley, and a tiny hint of lime) and the fact you can make a bunch of it all in one go. In fact, I took some for lunch today.
I first discovered the joys of adding curry powder to tuna fish when I made this allrecipes.com recipe many years ago. Since then, I’ve simplified and improved the recipe (I hope) with fresh curly parsley and apples!
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These days, I feel like there’s barely any time to cook, so my only option is to cook without cooking….i.e. salsa!
Over the past couple years, the Paleo diet and lifestyle have gained quite a bit of popularity and traction. Popularity comes with a price, however.
Bloggers and mainstream media outlets have begun to come out of the woodwork to talk about the Paleo diet and to try to decide if they love or hate it. As with anything, a few people are simply irrational or mean – these people criticize and hate the Paleo diet for any or no reason.
Lately, however, I’ve read quite a few critiques of the Paleo diet that are well-thought-out, but which rely on information that is either outdated or simply wrong. And they’re not doing this maliciously – this misinformation exists, and unless they spend hours digging around, it’s hard to know what’s correct and what’s not.
I used to love potato & leek soup growing up – it’s just so thick and hearty and delicious. Since cauliflower is such a great substitute for potatoes, I figured it would work well in the soup to give it a thick texture. And of course, I just couldn’t resist adding in some bacon!
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I am a big tea drinker, and the quote on my mug there is one of my favorites! “While there is tea, there is hope.” And some days, I feel like that saying is so true!
I am generally a black tea fanatic, but I have on occasions had fruit teas. However, they’ve always been a bit of a disappointment – good smelling but cardboard taste. So my number one aim in making a fruity tea was to make sure it didn’t taste like cardboard!
I love sushi and kimbap (which is the Korean version of sushi, usually without raw fish), but they’re both laden with quite a bit of rice. Although I’m not that sensitive to rice, I generally try to avoid it (to the utter incredulity of my Asian friends). So what to replace the rice with in sushi?? Avocados of course! I already love avocados in sushi (think california rolls and of course, there’s even the avocado roll), and when avocados are mashed up, they have a very similar texture to the soft sushi rice.
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10 years ago, mentioning that you were “Paleo” would have drawn more than a few blank stares. Today, I’m much more likely to be barraged by an avalanche of…interesting…questions.
Seriously, more and more people at least know what Paleo is, and the popularity is growing even among celebrities. Amazing books and podcasts are proliferating, like this book from Diane, this book from Melissa and Dallas, and this new podcast from Stacy, Matt, and Sarah.
In light of the growing popularity of the Paleo movement, I thought it was high time we take a serious look at the top 6 reasons why Paleo is growing so rapidly. (In countdown fashion.)
6. Paleo Dieters like being Trend-Setters
I had a lot of garlic cloves in my fridge, and I was concerned that they were going to go bad soon. What better way to make use of the garlic cloves than to roast them. After roasting them, I spread them on some burger patties. It just happened that the gentle flavor of the roasted garlic combined really well with the beef.
I started with some peeled garlic cloves and chopped off the end of each clove. (The oven was preheated to 350F (175C).)
I first heard about roasting cauliflowers with turmeric (more about what it is below) at a pot luck dinner I went to, and after reading about all the wonderful health benefits of turmeric (see here), I just had to try it! It’s so simple and makes a wonderful side dish to go with anything.
After preheating the oven at 350F (175C), I halved a large cauliflower (I was planning to use just half).
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